From the Jan. 21 Wall Street Journal ” Geoffrey Canada has spent decades building a strategy for saving poor children from crime-ridden streets and crumbling public schools. Mr. Canada, a 57-year-old social worker, calls his strategy the “conveyor belt,” because it aims to give children an intensive experience in a succession of programs until they graduate from college. Children in pre-kindergarten are taught foreign languages, for instance. From there, children enter Mr. Canada’s charter schools with longer school days and ….”
Mr. Canada believes he can transform Harlem one child at a time.
Many homeschoolers; faith based, unschooler or just those fed up with public school’s test driven culture, share his goal, believing that they are preparing their child to bring change to their society. The question still remains how do we want our society transformed and the battle lines are being drawn clearer in my mind every day.
Unfortunately home educating families themselves are taking up weapons on either side of the divide. Socialism versus free wheeling capitalism. Christian right homeschooler versus secular evolutionary thinking homeschooler. Right to life homeschooler versus right to choose…and the list goes on and on.
We’ve become so divided that I’m not for sure there is much common ground for us to stand on. This must be the fracturing of society that my son preached at me when we began homeschooling our daughter. He said it was just one more indicator.
So which is it? As a country are we being fractured or transformed?
Both? Transformed by fracture. . .
Remember that Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who called for McCarthyite investigations into every member of Congress and almost lost her safe reelection over it, had to back down? Look what she’s spouting now, sound like fomenting discontent if not treason yet?:
Words do matter all right.
And why is it suddenly a bunch of white women using their words to declare civil war? So jarring –
Speaking of “taking up weapons” here’s a 24-year-old with a real gun in her hand as her blog’s intro, the only common ground I find anymore — we all fear dangerous ideas, alarming enemies, but now it’s our fellow citizens we see robbing us of our rightful freedoms and ruining this country!
We all seem to believe this same thing but at the same time, but always about the other guy, not ourselves:
“This is such a [Insert demonized opposition name here, either liberal or conservative] idea. . . either do it willingly or we will make you do it. . .
That sounds an awful lot like indoctrination and conditioning to me. . . .This is also kind of against the 13th Amendment of the Constitution.”
So I see a failure of education, that if we the people can’t understand and transform and overcome, if we aren’t smart enough or enlightened enough to conquer Michele and Cassy’s stupidity on a socially effective scale, then we are indeed in crisis and may in fact fracture.
Hopefully the elegant and enlightened First Family is well-enough educated to help us all transform and overcome — but it’s stupid blue-collar-pandering, white gun nut girls who would call them “trash” on national TV as a form of patriotism, who American education is somehow failing to protect our nation from.
(See Tammy Bruce Calls the Obamas “Trash in the White House.”)
[...] Betty asked the other day about how we were “taking up weapons” on either side of a divide trying to transform society, and as I thought about it to discuss there, I was assaulted by the latest post-campaign barrage of words as weapons and real weapons too, no surprise in that, but prominently wielded by — white women! [...]
I diligently followed all the links before and then FORGOT to comment LOL!
I’m not sure what to say because the video seems to imply that “black and/or poor people’s culture” means “child-beating” or leaving the TV on and never talking to the kid. I am not sure whether I should get angry at the racist idea or the classist one. It’s a nice idea if the program is voluntary, but I’d be nervous about broadly applying this idea that others can raise our children better than we can. :]
Maybe we need to be fractured more to be fully ourselves. I think if we’re all of us getting our news from the same three sources, and we’re not all thinking (differently!!) for ourselves, that we’re in some grave danger. Though what it means to be “American” perhaps is not clearly defined by anyone. We do need at least that much in common. :]
Hmmm..I like the way you think, Mrs. C…Defining what it means to be American? Instead of being defined by our differences, what unites us?..hmmm…
Having worked a bit in some urban settings, I’m no expert, but…there are some common factors that beset many families in distress in those environments..not all, but many.
Obviously Barack Obama’s mama and Michele Obama’s mama made sure they turned off their TV..:)